


Throwback

by minuseven



Category: Mass Effect, Worm - Wildbow
Genre: Gen, Infiltrator (Mass Effect), Therum
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-10
Updated: 2014-12-10
Packaged: 2018-02-28 22:27:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,791
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2749430
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/minuseven/pseuds/minuseven
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Finding the asari wasn't anything like Shepard expected. For one, the girl was trapped in a floating soap bubble. For another... she had changed.</p><p>Liara had no idea of what was going on with herself either... and it terrified her.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Throwback

It felt like the deeper they went into the mine, the hotter it got. The cooling systems on her armour flashed a little hazard warning on her helmet’s display every two seconds. They couldn’t be heading into an active volcano, could they? Shepard would have like to say no, but she’d seen her fair share of desperate people doing the unthinkable. An archaeologist hiding herself inside an active volcano wasn’t that outrageous. What concerned Shepard was slightly different. Who was Dr. T’Soni hiding from? The Geth they’d already encountered, or her own team?

“This level is clear on our end, Commander.” Reported Kaidan Alenko.

“Roger that. We're clear here too.” She sent over the channel. "Proceed to the next level. Same plan."

"Ah, Commander? The walkways on our side are broken and the elevator doesn't exist anymore."

Well, fuck. But it wasn't anything Shepard hadn't seen coming. The catwalks were in a sorry state, abandoned to the hostile conditions of Therum's atmosphere. Even inside the filtered air of the mine, deterioration had taken hold. Stealth was impossible with the way the metal groaned under their feet. Frankly, Shepard was a little amazed they hadn't given away yet. In fact, the metal walkways were getting worse the deeper they went in. She surveyed her team. Alenko led Squad Bravo, a marine contingent with the only other biotic human on the Normandy. Shepard herself was with Williams and Squad Alpha, with Wrex Urdnot along to provide biotic power. Would the krogan battlemaster be enough to handle the asari doctor? She glanced at the towering pile of muscle, armour and eezo next to her. Right, stupid question.

"Squad Alpha will proceed alone. Bravo will cover our backs and remain on this level." She decided. "Williams? Alenko?"

Her subordinates confirmed over the link and Shepard gave the signal for the squads to move. They cleared two more levels with minimal resistance. It was as they descended to the last level before the mine shaft that they found their quarry. They were circling the grey prothean structure the hole had been dug around, a building of some sort hazarded Shepard, that a voice called out to them from outside their helmets.

“Please come out. I can hear you. I’m trapped! I need help!”

Shepard motioned for the marines to secure the location and beckoned Wrex and Ashley to accompany her. Just around the bend, they found Dr. T’Soni.

The sight was, frankly, nothing even close to what Shepard had imagined.

For one, she did not expect something out of a vid of questionable nature. Like an asari eagle spread in the middle of the air, trapped in some sort of spherical gravity field. For another, the scientist herself did not fit her mental image. The field distorted things a little bit, but T'Soni had a very impressive figure for an archeologist. Asari usually wore high heels to stand at eye level with. Shepard would had managed to look down on most of the 'blues' otherwise. They were exceptions, their councillor for example, but T'Soni put them all to shame. She had to be at least as tall as Garrus, and her frame stretched the green suit she wore to its limits.

Shepard approached carefully, mindful of the glowing barrier between them. Her rifle was pointed to the floor, non-threateningly, but still held ready in her hands, just in case. "Doctor T'Soni?"

“Oh Goddess, somebody came. Could you please let me out? I heard you kill the synthetics. Please, you must let me out.” The asari pleaded gravelly.

"Please calm down, madam. I'm Commander Shepard, Citadel Special Tactics." Said Shepard, raising a hand to calm the frantic alien. "Are you Dr. Liara T'Soni?"

"Yes, I'm Liara. Or at least I think I am." The asari made a little motion with her facial muscles that Shepard supposed was meant to convey something. Worry, perhaps? All it did was make her look comically puzzled. “Things have been… strange, ever since I got trapped here.”

"Strange?" Questioned Shepard.

"Well, I feel different. Tingly? Also I might have hallucinated that I was on fire. Probably because of the heat. Which I haven't been feeling. My prison must be protecting me somehow, since I am not completely dehydrated already. It's a prothean containment field. Security devices like these are rare to find intact and functioning. Fascinating but… infuriating to experience in the flesh.” Liara mumbled a last part. “I can't even twitch a crest..."

Shepard raised an eyebrow at the babbling scientist, vaguely intrigued at the way even the graceful asari seemed to have awkward nerds. The image of Liara T’Soni, tall, awkward and gangly in a thessian university, fluttered through her mind. "Right." She'd always wondered about those things on their heads, too. "We'll find a way to get you out, doctor. Do you have any particular ideas on how to do it?"

“Oh, there’s a console in here that controls the ruin’s fields.” She would have indicated it with her head but couldn’t, immobilized as she was. “But I do not know how you’ll get in here. You must bypass the barrier curtain, somehow. The krogan has been trying different ways to do it, unsuccessfully so far, thank the Goddess.”

“A krogan?” Wrex stepped in, rumbling menacingly. Shepard barred his way with an arm and gave him a warning glance. This was her game. Wrex’s intimidating presence could ruin the rapport she was building with the civilian and without it getting the information they needed out of the girl would be much harder. And distasteful.

“Oh, you have a krogan too.” The doctor now seemed to want to shrink back.

“Specialist Urdnot is part of my crew and a professional.” Said Shepard reassuringly, taking a step closer to Liara and making her attention stay on her. “But, there was a krogan with the geth?”

There was a brief silence. Oh right, that information wasn’t completely declassified yet.

“Geth? Outside the Perseus Veil?” The archaeologist's voice was small.

"Yes."

"Oh Goddess."

“Yes.” Shepard hoped the asari wouldn’t faint on her. In fact... “Doctor? How long have you been in there?”

“I thought they looked familiar but I’m not a modern history expert, I should have paid more attention in… Oh, me?” She blinked. “I’m not sure. Over than a standard Therum day, I believe, but time is hard to keep track off when you are… stuck in a prothean security device. Maybe two days?”

A Therum day was more than an Earth day. The asari in front of them shouldn’t have been so full of energy. Dehydration, hunger, the psychologic stress of a pseudo solitary confinement… Shepard had no idea of how well relatively young asari dealt with it, but the hallucinations were a pretty big hint. “We won’t dally then. Just hold on for a bit more, doctor.”

She turned back to her squad and put some distance between them and the asari. Just to be sure, she spoke into the comm-link. “Very well, any ideas? Wrex? Williams?”

The krogan just shrugged, offering a simple no. Williams hesitated before answering. “I… don’t know. This doesn’t feel familiar,” She gestured vaguely over her shoulder at the prothean structure. “but it doesn’t feel like any bunker either. There would be another way in, I think, but I don’t know where.”

Shepard glanced at the grey rounded building, blue barriers activated. “From above or below, maybe?”

“Maybe.”

“Right. Coordinate with Alenko, I want his squad looking for an entrance on the higher levels. We’ll handle the lower levels. Also, no squad is to separate anymore. One competent krogan is more than enough to wipe a six man team. With geth on the equation we could get wilted down and wiped out.”

Wrex rumbled. “You think this is an ambush, Shepard?”

“Fuck, she’s with them!” Williams cursed. “Fucking asari, can’t trust a single one of them.”

“Don’t be hasty. I doubt she’s on their side.” Shepard tapped her fingers on her rifle and explained before the soldier started jumping to more conclusions. An unfortunate habit of hers that Shepard had already noticed. “And I don’t think this is an ambush, at least not yet. For one, I don’t think she’s in any state to trick us. For another… if you were a krogan, and had to retrieve an unwilling asari from an old artifact you can’t make head nor tail of…. Why not let somebody else do the dirty work for you? Notice how these last levels have been left all for ourselves? Awfully convenient.”

Williams wasn’t convinced. “She’s Benezia’s daughter. Who’s to say she isn’t with her mother?”

Shepard knew it was a valid concern, but she had a good feeling about the archeologist. “By the reports, Dr. T’Soni is merely a reclusive and slightly eccentric intellectual. Even if, for some reason, she’s with Saren and Benezia, we can take her.”

Nearly thirty minutes later, Ashley Williams turned off her comm and walked back to find Shepard staring at a large, industrial type machine. A mining laser that had been abandoned by the original expedition, probably because heavy equipment like it couldn’t be converted to omnigel and transported out. Too much metal or something like that.

“Still no geth?” Asked Shepard, distracted.

“No movements Commander. But Team Two managed to get from Dr. T’Soni that the krogan did mention Saren.”

Shepard blinked, waking herself up from the scenarios in her head. “Good. That’s good.” The geth presence was a large neon sign of an asari dancer shaking her booty, saying Saren was involved, but real confirmation was always good. “Did she know why?”

“No ma’am.”

Shepard grunted but didn’t comment. She had her own suspicions. Liara T’Soni fulfilled too many of the requirements she thought Saren was after. Also, she might have been a loose end. “Anyway, tell Alenko to get his squad back to the Makos and gather Squad Alpha.”

Williams straightened. “You’ve found a way in, Commander?”

“It doesn’t look like there’s a back entrance, or at least an accessible one. So we’ll have to brute force it a little.”

The soldier followed her gaze to the mining laser. “I like your thinking Skipper.”

“It might collapse the mine on us.” Warned Shepard. “Plus, it’ll need some repairs to work.”

Williams grinned behind her helmet. “Whenever has a little risk stood between a marine and a high caliber laser? I think if we overload it, we might get enough juice for one last shot out of this piece of junk.”

“Oh, so now you’re an engineer besides being a prothean expert?” Joked the Commander good-naturedly.

“It’s got nothing to do with the damn beacon.” Williams paused. Shepard let her think. Eden Prime had left many wounds, wounds that would take time above all to heal. When she spoke again, it was a little forced. “Well, maybe a little. After the first prothean ruin got uncovered, they stopped using the big machinery and dumped it all near our base. So that nobody tried to steal it or salvage parts. And, well, you know the saying? Things happen when marines get bored? Eden Prime could get really boring sometimes.”

“I see.” She could just picture the scene in her head. Bored marines, heavy duty laser equipment… “See what you can do about this one then. I’ll contact the teams myself.”

A week before, if so, the platoon that the Normandy had deployed to Eden Prime came into contact with an active prothean beacon. Five soldiers had gotten biotically blasted through an unknown mechanism with incomprehensible visions. Ashley Williams had been the closest and most affected one… that remained sane. The Gunnery Chief hadn’t even been part of their team, just a local survivor tagging along in the absence of a proper command structure. Shepard and Alenko had gotten minor visions themselves, being within the blast area, but the two closest marines to the beacon, charged with securing it, had gotten their brains fried. She’d been lucky.

Shepard observed Ashley from a distance. The Commander herself still had nightmares she could barely remember in the morning, filled with screams and metal gushing blood and pus from open sores. Ideally, she’d have the marine recover before deploying her, but time was a luxury she didn’t have and the knowledge inside her head far too useful. Already on Feros had Williams’ new gut feelings saved them from a lot of trouble. She hoped the Cypher was helping her too. Maybe this asari would also help clear things up. And for that they had to get her out of that impenetrable soap bubble.

But for all of Shepard’s worries, Williams did know how to rewire mining lasers with frightening speed. By the time Squad Alpha had gathered, she had it aimed and ready for action.

“Commander?”

“Do the honours Williams.”

“My pleasure.”

She pressed a button on the holographic interface of her omnitool with gravitas. With a whine, the heavy machine belched forth a red-white laser that left a streak in Shepard’s vision despite the eye protecting capacities of her helmet. It was a weapon that could have carved through a dreadnought's hide… or so Shepard imagined. The whole mine shook for a second before the laser stopped abruptly. They poked their heads from out of cover. The heat had melted a large part of the mining equipment, even though it was supposed to withstand stress and temperatures of thousands of degrees. No great explosion, flying shrapnel or anything hazardous.

“Good job Gunny.”

“Thank you, ma’am.”

There was an ominous groan from under their feet, the kind that preceded earthquakes and other disasters. Perhaps Shepard had spoken too soon.

“We should go.”

The squad scrambled into the still red hot hole in the prothean building. The opening, angled diagonally, led into a great circular room inside and Shepard realized how much she had underestimated the size of the ruins. A pillar ran through the middle of the structure, the floor in each level composed of four bridges that crossed with it at the centre. All smooth curves, rounded edges, silver and grey tinged blue. The glow of active eezo marked every level extending above and far, far below.

And it had stood, buried under a lava flow, for over fifty thousand years. Every time, Shepard was awed by how small they were.

Copious amounts of plastic cable were fabricated on the spot to reach the level above, and the archeologists they were rescuing. Mostly, the problem would be getting Wrex up there. Krogan were a bit like turtles, had discovered Shepard. Extremely limited mobility with their ‘shell’ against the ground. The mercenary just huffed and used a biotics assisted jump, clearing the distance easily.

“Well, that works too. I guess.” Shepard would have to keep that trick in mind for future missions. Applying biotics to overcome terrain difficulties. But she wasn’t going to ask him to get everybody up after all that cable had been produced. It would be a waste of perfectly good cable.

“You made it...” The scientist greeted them, still immobile and floating inside a soap-bubble. “What did you do? I heard an explosion!”

“We used a mining laser.” Speaking of which… “Anyway, Doctor T’Soni, how stable are these ruins exactly?”

“Rather unstable actually. The dig site is right on top of a dead volcano’s crater, so… Oh Goddess.”

Right, Shepard had a feeling that might be the case. Right on cue, another rumble made itself heard and the ground shook lightly. “Williams…”

“On it. Just…” The marine replied distantly. Her hands hovered over the console, mapping out an holographic interface with gibberish on it. “Give me a couple of seconds, Skipper... I think…”

With a quick gesture, the forcefield around the asari flickered and vanished. She caught herself just before hitting the floor and turned to survey her rescuers. Shepard’s helmet display flashed a temperature warning sign again, but she was more occupied studying the asari without the barrier between them. She reiterated her previous opinion, seeing as the asari was looking down on her much like her turian usually did. Her skin gleamed slightly, silver, and she could see the edges of the scales that composed her skin. Dehydration taking its toll on the thessian native.

“Thank you.” The asari said heartfeltly. “I do not know what would have become of me if you hadn’t come.”

“How did you even get stuck there?” Asked Ashley.

“Ah, well... “ The asari fidgeted, averting her eyes. “When the geth attacked I ran here, where I knew the defences would protect me. Unfortunately, I hadn’t finished the preliminary translation… I must have hit the wrong thing because suddenly I was trapped.”

“Should have RTFM.” The marine scoffed.

“Pardon?” T’Soni blinked, confused, but the tone of the comment made it clear it wasn’t a compliment. The asari glared at Williams, her frame and tense posture making an admittedly intimidating picture.

"Geez, what do they feed them on Thessia?" Commented someone, a private, over the comm channel.

“Cut the chatter people. And somebody patch T’Soni into the channel.” Admonished Shepard. To said asari, she said. “Is there any way out of here, fast?”

“There’s a central elevator in the main chamber. It can get us to the upper levels… At least, I think it could get us to the upper levels.”

She led them back into the circular room and to the column that ran through the middle of the tower. The archeologist set to work on a cleverly hidden console. Shepard contacted the Normandy. Squad Bravo and the Makos should be getting loaded into the frigate by the time they got out. A couple of nerve-wracking minutes later, as the Commander was seriously thinking about ordering Williams to help, possibility of personality clashes be damned, the platform Squad Alpha was on finally moved. Shuddering and groaning, mechanisms from another era brought them closer and closer to the surface. If anything, activating the elevator had only made things worse, whatever machinery it used making the entire tower shake, the barrier that had protected its many chambers flickering, dying. Sheer luck kept the elevator going, her squad on it and not falling into an abyss.

So of course it didn’t last.

On the top level they were greeted by the barrels of geth pulse rifles. All around the room, over a dozen synthetics surrounded them. Outnumbered and at gunpoint, but not outwitted, Shepard’s squad immediately assumed positions around the scientist. Wrex raised a barrier and rumbled deeply.

“Battlemaster.”

“Hand over the asari.” A massive krogan chuckled to himself. “Or don’t. That’d be more fun.”

Shepard really didn’t have time to stop for a chat when the mine was coming down on their heads. She raised her rifle and fired, her squad already following her lead. “Fuck you.” Her shots washed over the krogan’s kinetic barriers. With a bellow, the krogan charged. Shepard ducked, already throwing herself out of harm’s way.

And a fist wreathed in fire hammered into the krogan’s face.

For two long seconds, Shepard could only stare as the brute staggered back. Liara T’Soni, the asari archeologist, pulled back her arm too, breathing heavily. In fleeting moments of enhanced awareness, Shepard could see heads turning her way, geth pausing briefly to analyse the anomaly, the panic written on her face and the way it gave way to fury born of adrenaline. With a cry, T’Soni erupted.

From there followed one of the more chaotic fights Shepard had ever participated in. In the limited space of the chamber, fortunately without any holes to fall through, with limited to no cover, they were forced to keep on the move. Shepard flanked a geth a run, spraying it with her auto-fire. Wrex smashed through whatever enemies he had in front of him. T’Soni and the krogan were at each other’s throats, uncaring and unaware of the rest of the fight around them. Shepard delivered a shot right into a geth’s optic then William’s fire blew a hole into its torso, killing it. A marine unloaded his shotgun into his target, Wrex warped a geth’s frame and smashed it against the wall with his shoulder. The enemy krogan finally slipped up. His biotic barrier succumbed, allowing T'Soni's punch to erupt though, crushing his skull even as his flesh charred away.

Everything, in all, must have lasted thirty to fourty seconds.

Then everybody’s attention shifted to the metaphorical and possibly physical elephant in the room. Even Liara turned to look down at her own hands. Wrex rolled his shoulders, eyeing her suspiciously, and he wasn’t alone in the sentiment. Her squad was starting to move back to surround her, almost unconsciously.

Honestly, if it came down to a fight, Shepard wasn’t sure if they could take on the asari, if that was what she was. During the brawl she had gained at least fifty centimeters in height, and a proportional amount of muscle. And claws, and fangs and the ability to breathe fire. That wasn’t even mentioning the tail or the regeneration on par with the hardiest of vorcha. What was next? Wings?

“D-Dr. T’Soni?” She had to clear her throat, dry as it was.

Blue eyes, still the same, zeroed in on him. She said something but the translator couldn’t make heads nor tail of it.

From the low, mashed up syllables, she could vaguely recognize the long flowing sounds of the ausar language. Spoken from a mouth too large, with too many teeth and a too big tongue. Shepard lowered her rifle, relaxed her body and extended a hand to the asari. “It’s okay. Liara, it’s okay. We’ll get you out of here and then we’ll find out what happened to you. And we’ll fix it. Okay? Can you do that, Liara? Can you do that?”

She focussed on the blue eyes. It was easy to read them and the emotions they contained. The silver colouring of the scales and plates that covered her body, the lengthening and distortion of bones, the horns the crest had begun fusing into… None of that mattered. Just T’Soni’s blue eyes. They weren’t the eyes of an enemy. They were the eyes of somebody scared and alone. Standing on a ruin that made the floor under their feet tremble continuously, Shepard tried to remember the age of the maiden. How old was she, proportionally?

Liara finally nodded.

“Okay.” Shepard nodded back and pointed to the mine shaft exit. “Let’s go. Everybody, let’s go!”

When they finally stepped into the Normandy’s cargo bay, the metal-scaled creature that had kept pace with the marines all the way had shrunk. Had shrunk, in fact, until it was a slender asari in only blackened wisps of clothing that couldn’t be called tatters. Blue, freckled, and shorter than Shepard.

**Author's Note:**

> Liara gets Lung's powers and, although subtly, Ashley's starting to display tinker powers.
> 
> Shepard would later just blame the Protheans and be done with it.


End file.
